Fiona Shackleton

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English solicitor and politician

title: "Fiona Shackleton" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1956-births", "living-people", "alumni-of-the-university-of-exeter", "conservative-party-(uk)-life-peers", "english-solicitors", "english-women-lawyers", "jewish-english-politicians", "lawyers-from-london", "lieutenants-of-the-royal-victorian-order", "life-peeresses-created-by-elizabeth-ii", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii", "people-educated-at-benenden-school", "salmon-family"] description: "English solicitor and politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Shackleton" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English solicitor and politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific_prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Baroness Shackleton
of Belgravia
honorific_suffix	LVO
image	Official portrait of Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia crop 2.jpg
office1	Member of the House of Lords
status1	Lord Temporal
termlabel1	Life peerage
term_start1	21 December 2010
birth_name	Fiona Sara Charkham
birth_date
birth_place	London, England
education	Benenden School
Exeter University
occupation	Solicitor
party	Conservative
spouse	Ian Shackleton
children	2
::

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia | honorific_suffix = LVO | image = Official portrait of Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia crop 2.jpg | image_size = | caption = | office1 = Member of the House of Lords | status1 = Lord Temporal | termlabel1 = Life peerage | term_start1 = 21 December 2010 | term_end1 = | birth_name = Fiona Sara Charkham | birth_date = | birth_place = London, England | education = Benenden School Exeter University | occupation = Solicitor | party = Conservative | boards = | spouse = Ian Shackleton | children = 2 | parents = | relatives = | website = Fiona Sara Shackleton, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, (née Charkham; born 26 May 1956) is an English solicitor and Conservative politician, who has represented members of the British royal family and celebrities, including Paul McCartney, Charles III, Prince Andrew, Princess Haya bint Hussein, and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer. Her charm and resoluteness earned her the nickname "Steel Magnolia".

Biography

Born Fiona Sara Charkham in London, she is the daughter of Jonathan Charkham, an economist and adviser to The Bank of England, and Moira Elizabeth Frances Salmon, daughter of Barnett Alfred and Molly Salmon. Her maternal grandfather, Alfred Salmon, was chairman of the J. Lyons and Co. cornerhouse empire. Through the Salmon family, Shackleton is a cousin to Nigella and Dominic Lawson, and George Monbiot.

Shackleton was educated at Benenden School in Kent. She attended Exeter University, graduating with a third class degree in law. Shackleton then trained as a cordon bleu chef, and became an executive caterer for boardrooms before training to be a solicitor. In July 2010, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Exeter in the form of an LL.D.

On 21 December 2010, the Queen created Shackleton a life peer as Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia (in the City of Westminster). She sits as a Conservative in the House of Lords.

Shackleton supported the research by the University of Exeter examining compatibility and the ten key aspects of a successful relationship (named the Shackleton Project). The research was published in July 2018.

Legal career

Shackleton qualified as a solicitor in 1980, and by 1986 she had become a partner at Farrer and Co, the firm of solicitors employed by the British royal family. In the same year Shackleton and other international family lawyers, including Jane Simpson and Raymond Tooth, co-founded the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, an invitation-only organisation which now consists of over 500 of the world's leading family lawyers. Her first high-profile case was that of the Duke and Duchess of York.

Shackleton joined Payne Hicks Beach in 2001 as a partner. Shackleton is reputed to have fallen out of royal favour in the aftermath of the Paul Burrell affair and the suggestions of a cover-up over allegations of a homosexual rape within the royal household put Shackleton, in her own words, "under pressure for a solution to be reached more speedily than I was able to achieve". She was criticised in the Peat Report on the proceedings.

In the 2006 New Year Honours, she was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) and remains solicitor for the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex.

In March 2012, one of Shackleton's former clients filed a negligence claim against her for incorrect advice on a child support case. The former client states that due to this erroneous advice he lost out on more than £260,000. Shackleton charged over £95,000 in fees for the advice. The case was subsequently dropped and the client paid his own costs.

Famous cases

Shackleton's high-profile cases include:

The Duke and Duchess of York: where Shackleton represented the Duke. The Duchess was able to negotiate a £3 million settlement.
The Prince and Princess of Wales: where Shackleton represented the Prince. The Princess was able to negotiate a £17 million settlement and observers saw the outcome as a creditable draw. but styles of members of the royal family are governed by the prerogative of the sovereign.
Paul McCartney and Heather Mills: in which Shackleton represented the former Beatle, and secured leading QC Nicholas Mostyn before Mills's solicitor Anthony Julius, leading to their being known during the case by the media as the "legal dream team". Mills described Shackleton in an interview with Larry King thus: "There's this nasty woman – Fiona Shackleton. She wants to drag it out as long as possible to fill her pockets and she's said some pretty mean things when I was in a wheelchair." At the final settlement hearing, Mills poured a jug of water over Shackleton's head.
Claire and Thierry Henry: in which Shackleton represented wife Claire Merry, whose marriage broke down after the Arsenal striker left for Barcelona.
John Cleese and Alyce Cleese: in which she represented Alyce Faye. Cleese said afterwards, "What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine".
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Princess Haya bint Hussein: in which Shackleton represented Princess Haya.
The Earl and Countess Spencer: in which Shackleton is to represent Lord Spencer.

Personal life

Shackleton is married to Ian Ridgeway Shackleton, who runs a business called The Chatham Archive & Document Storage Company, and who is related to Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. The couple have two daughters.

References

Dyer, Clare. (15 February 2008). "She can give people straight answers, often ones they don't want to hear, in such a way that they take it from her". [[guardian.co.uk]].
[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6483785.stm BBC News: Magazine – Faces of the week]
"Deaths", ''[[The Times]]'', 31 May 1965, p. 1
"The Guardian Profile", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 15 February 2008, p. 21
Harding, Thomas. (29 August 2019). "Legacy: One Family, a Cup of Tea and the Company that Took On the World". Random House.
[http://www.kevinbean.plus.com/family_history/paf/pafg351.htm#9044 Salmon & Gluckstein genealogy] {{webarchive. link. (10 February 2012)
{{London Gazette. (7 January 2011)
(19 November 2010). "Latest peerages announced". Gov.UK.
[http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/research/groups/frs/projects/shackletonrelationshipsproject/ ''The University of Exeter'':"Shackleton Relationships Project"]
''[http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/content/documents/peat_report.pdf Report to HRH The Prince of Wales] by [[Sir Michael Peat]] and Edmund Lawson QC'', 13 March 2003 {{webarchive. link. (12 June 2012)
{{London Gazette. (31 December 2005)
[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060810/ai_n16657652 TEAM MACCA vs TEAM MILLS – ''The Independent'', London]
[http://www.thelawyer.com/shackleton-faces-negligence-claim-from-former-client/1011944.article ''The Lawyer'': "Shackleton faces negligence claim from former client", 26 March 2012]
[http://www.thelawyer.com/former-client-drops-negligence-claim-against-shackleton/1015939.article ''The Lawyer'': "Former client drops negligence claim against Shackleton", 10 December 2012]
(4 July 2019). "Royal lawyer 'advising on split' between Dubai's ruler and wife". [[The Times]].
(29 May 2010). "Duchess of York's divorce settlement was worth £3 million". The Daily Telegraph.
(23 March 2007). "Faces of the week". BBC.
(18 March 2008). "Battered, bitter, but £24m better off, the former Mrs McCartney has the last word". The Guardian.
"Reality bites for the McCartneys". The Scotsman.
(21 April 2008). "Sir Nicholas Mostyn". [[The Times]].
Roche, Elisa. (22 March 2007). "Heather: Paul sent me flowers". Daily Express.
(18 March 2008). "Mills soaked McCartney's lawyer". BBC News.
(18 October 2007). "Thierry Henry's ex to take £10m in divorce".
Andrew Pierce. (18 August 2009). "John Cleese in £12 million divorce settlement". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
Bostock, Bill. (4 July 2019). "Princess Haya hires Shackleton, royal lawyer, to battle Emir of Dubai".
(9 June 2024). "Earl Spencer hires leading divorce lawyer Baroness Shackleton". [[The Times]].
"About Us {{!}} Chatham Archive".
(15 February 2008). "Fiona Shackleton, divorce lawyer to the stars".

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